Have Fun Watching Him Breathe
by Td03
Summary: Villagers are all awful? No. One was truthful to Naruto. What does he care about the law? He's dying anyway. [Canon divergence. Where the Bijuu are like the legends they are. Character self-assassination. A very slight crossover with pretty much any other fandom for the purpose of background characters (you may request).] Fuuinjutsu!Naruto.
1. look away

**Have Fun Watching Him Breathe**

 **Disclaimer:** ** _Naruto_** **is owned by Masashi Kishimoto, Shueisha Inc, Viz Media, Madman Entertainment, Manga Entertainment, Aniplex, Studio Pierrot, Animax and TV Tokyo.**

 **Summary: Villagers are all awful? No. One was truthful to Naruto. What does he care about the law? He's dying anyway. Canon divergence. Character self-assassination.**

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 _Birds started showing up dead_

 _Whales turned up on shores_

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"…Uzumaki-kun, what's your favorite animal?"

"Foxes!" The demon child grinned widely. "Giant, magnificent, gorgeous orange fox!"

Kazuto's head was drooping as he labored on the task of breathing. His dark hair shadowed his black eyes. The civilian was now positive that the demon child really doesn't know it was a demon, and not a human. He wondered what will happen if the demon child will never know of its true nature.

It's a bit sad, to Kazuto. He had gone on a silent rampage against his family when he found out that his sister and mother were actually his cousin and aunt. It took his father/uncle getting himself Killed In Action for Kazuto to stop moping over the years of lying and forgave his aunt and uncle and cousin.

He doubted a demon child would be silent in its rampage. And there's absolutely no way a demon child would be forgiving like humans.

The fifteen year old boy liked Konoha. He liked Yukihira-senpai who had been nice to hire him and gave him work so he can make a living after his home had been destroyed by the demon's paw. He liked the people – civilians, ninja, animal ninja – visiting Yukihira diner to eat and hang out and have fun or romantic dates. He liked living. He also liked people living.

He doesn't want the demon fox getting angry and deciding Konoha is a delicious buffet again.

He coughed. He's been coughing since he visited his sister's empty grave and it's getting worse. Spits of blood were hacking up his throat again.

Fuck the law. He's dying anyway. He's not going to let the demon child finding out its true nature on its own years later and getting angry over being lied like Kazuto did.

"Are you okay, Onii-san?" Naruto asked. "Do you need water?"

Kazuto glanced down at the short demon child. Naruto didn't point out the red droplets in the teenager's palm. "Yeah. That would be nice." It wouldn't do anything. But he can do _something_. "May I visit your apartment for that? We could – play, or something."

Naruto felt ecstatic at the thought of having a friend – stranger, but they can be friends, right? – visit his house. Other kids he listened in at the parks made having friends visiting sound like multiple best-day-ever-s.

Kazuto smoothly averted his gaze from the happy stratosphere blue eyes, though he didn't quite manage to hide his shivering. The demon just looked so much like a human.

If it wasn't for the whisker marks, Kazuto wondered what would have happened had he kept coaching the boy out of his crying a year ago.

They walked through the streets. The demon child kicked a shiny pebble. People flinched.

Kazuto took a breath a little too deep, and his chest became painful and he felt tired.

Kazuto hadn't always had a lung problem. It was not a genetic thing. He had gotten it for breathing Nine tails' visible chakra. When was he at the time? Ah, he was ten. He had tried to run towards his cousin/sister only to see the demon's giant paw stomp on her legs and stomach. Her eyes were stricken with tears and she looked at him painfully before the paw came back up, bringing her body up on the creases of its giant claws before her waist split and her head fell splat. He ran away and avoided another paw, but then breathed the red stuff floating in the air. His mind went crazy with whispers of hate — he didn't know how he pushed through the voices and didn't get mad, but he did. He wanted to find his family, but then he fainted after breathing in more of the foul chakra.

He woke up to find his aunt/mother driven to a drooling mess by the foul chakra. She was muttering crazy. 'She had been one of the lucky ones to be able to not die from the demon's immediate killing intent', a ninja said, 'but she was one of the ones who succumbed to the demonic chakra's presence'. She was declared unfit to parent him, but Kazuto convinced them that he will be able to provide for their lives and he wanted to take care of her. She can still respond – only to him – and with time, she'll heal—of course she would heal.

People run and people fell. All their chests became empty when news broke out that Yondaime was dead.

Kazuto wasn't sure how he felt to have Sandaime taking up the position. The ninja was old when he retired and he's super old now, would he even be able to protect them? Old people shouldn't be taking up powerful positions because they tend to be stubborn about new ideas from youngsters, Kazuto thought. And the Sandaime looked weak, with his wrinkles and stuff. That smile is probably fake. He's probably been waiting to get the Hokage seat for a while.

Sandaime told them that the demon wasn't killed. But was sealed inside the baby. He started talking about the baby being a hero because he's going to be keeping the demon from ever attacking them again thanks to the seal that the Hokage had made, sacrificing himself in the process.

He's not sure about that too. _I mean… an ink? He's telling us this baby's a hero because the Kyuubi is held back by a little fucking ink? Seriously?_

While people were shouting themselves hoarse, demanding the baby to die so they can be free, Kazuto sat and brooded about where he'll be sleeping, his mother, what kind of things he'll need to do to make sure they can live.

And then medical check-up revealed that Kazuya had lung cancer.

Even in its supposed prison, the Nine tails still made their lives horrible.

They waited in the settlements while men and ninja tries to build buildings back up. With the need for shelter being an emergency they couldn't spare any requests to make it fancy or customized, they made it all plain and the same, flats of two story houses for families of more than 3 members. Kazuto tried his best to keep his mad mother have her share of meal and bathroom breaks and sleep. The next morning, he told his mother that he'll try to find a job, so she should stay in the house. She nodded, maybe. He didn't believe she could even stand up if he's not there to tell her too. He found a famous diner chef whose meal he had loved and menu memorized. Kazuto approached him and asked if he was going to bring up Yukihira Diner again. When the man said yes, Kazuto begged to be given a job, a sous chef, dish washer, waiter or delivery boy. He explained his circumstances and Yukihira-san agreed. But the 18 year old chef told him that they weren't going to be boss and employee, they're going to be co-owners because Yukihira doesn't exactly have any money to pay Kazuto off, and the restaurant is going to be built by their two hands so it wouldn't be fair if Kazuya doesn't get the pay he deserved. So Yukihira Diner was open again, became a famous spot for ninja and civilians alike. Yukihira cooked and Kazuto took orders. At night, the two became bartenders, though Kazuto was only called in for special nights, when it's regular nights, he got the day's dishwashing duty.

People were still talking angrily about the demon, grieving. Kazuto merely listened in and visited his sister's empty grave. He wondered at some points as to what happened to the demon baby. If it was offed or if it was hidden to be trained as a weapon. Probably the latter. The old Hokage had presented the demon and dared asking them to think that it's a hero.

4 years went by. His mother was as dead as ever, but she was beginning to have a little shine on her face, and responded quicker, and even managed to make expressions. On the other hand, his lung cancer grew worse. But Kazuto didn't think much of it. He's been fine so far, and he only coughed up a lot. A glass of water and he's fine.

He had passed by the orphanage, and saw a blond haired kid crying, holding onto a frog wallet and cap. Kazuto went to ask him, and the kid cried out that he was getting kicked out of the orphanage because he can walk by himself. When the kid looked up, Kazuto saw his whisker marks. He looked so cute, and adorable—and isn't this one of those ninja missions his father told him about. Where ninja pretended to be adorable or pretty and harmless before striking out their kunai? He imagined the little fingers to be claws and remembered his sister's mangled corpse falling off like the tears that slid down the little fingers. He coughed up blood as he remembered with perfect clarity of the hating voices he got from breathing the demon's chakra. He ignored the demon child's _are you okay_ and ran away from the streets.

…

He feels fear every time he sees the child running about the streets, so free and smiling, as if he owned the place. He probably does. Ancient tales said that Kyuubi no Kitsune's domain is Fire Country after all. He doesn't know if the demon child remembers about that night, how many people it had stomped on and eaten. _We're just a buffet to the demon_. Now that the child was no longer confined by curfew and locks by the matron, the demon child just strolls through Konoha without care.

A year later, he coughed up _way too much_ blood and his breathing went puffy and fainted somewhere. A nice ninja brought him to the hospital. Apparently, his lung cancer was incurable now. He told his mother about everything, as he used to.

.

.

.

His mother died in her sleep. She just doesn't wake up. It took him thirty minutes to notice that she wasn't breathing.

He left her corpse on the bed, pretending she's only sleeping. He doesn't know how to take care of a dead body. He'll ask Yukihira-senpai later, maybe. If he managed.

Serving fried rice to a customer, Kazuto saw the demon child staring at _him_. The demon didn't look malicious. It just looked like a hungry child. Kazuto wondered why the child is here. An irrational voice told him that the child must have somehow killed his mother. But he didn't think so. He hadn't even ever talked to the child, except last year. The customers were getting anxious, but too scared to actually go out with the way the child hungrily looked at the restaurant. Kazuto grabbed a plate of tamago kake gohan, got out of the back door and motioned the child to get to the back alley. Naruto arrived to see the back door shut and locked, a delicious plate sat on top of a garbage can.

He asked Yukihira-senpai about funerals. Finally he can visit a grave that wasn't empty. His mother's last few years were meaningless. 5 years being a doll. Maybe a burden, though Kazuto doesn't entertain that thought. She had taken him when _he_ was a burden. It was okay. Even if it was meaningless. Even if no one would remember her.

The demon child spotted him from the graveyard gate and clung to him, telling Kazuto that's he's very nice and he's thankful for having a full meal. Kazuto merely listened to the demon chattering non-stop about things with surprising vocabulary. The demon child started asking basic ice breaking questions. Kazuto was now certain this demon child truly has no idea that it was a demon. Maybe. He asked what his favorite animal is.

…

The ramen cup was cold now, and the glass had shattered to pieces when it fell out of the older boy's grasp. "Why are you telling me this, Onii-san?"

Kazuto couldn't shrug. Breathing was hard. "I'm dying? I don't know. I used to dream about being immortal. My sister is gone and no one remembers her. No one knows my mother either, only me, and she's dead. I'm dying too. I don't know. Maybe with you we'll be immortal through our names and memories, since you're immortal after all."

Naruto didn't say anything in reply. Kazuto's dead body wouldn't hear it anyway.

 **l** o **o** k **a** w **a** y

 **l** o **o** k **a** w **a** y

 **l** o **o** k **a** w **a** y

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 **Originally, I planned to have a dying civilian visiting Naruto in his apartment, befriending the boy, and telling him that he wants to leave his corpse in the demon's apartment so that when news get out, everyone will definitely think that the demon child had killed the civilian. With Naruto freaking the fuck out and knowing that ANBU are watching outside, I planned on having Naruto chopping him up to pieces, using the meat as stew in the big boiling pot, forcing himself to eat it and cook and eat it again until all the meat is gone and the bones all cracked to be mistaken as an animal's meat bones. I planned on having optimistic Naruto turn into someone that constantly does character self-assassination with his guilt of being a cannibal but then as I wrote the civilian's background I went 3D again and couldn't figure out how to explain Naruto's innocence to the ANBU with the civilian not showing up outside of his apartment again and couldn't do that one-shot horror fiction, instead turning it into this.**

 **Which one do you like in any case? The original plan or what it turned out to be? I wanna see how many liked the morbid, fucked up one or the sort of self-insert one. Despite using** Kazuto Kirigaya **from** _Sword Art Online_ **as a base, I largely used my own perceived character for the reactions and thought.**

 **If you're sad about me killing Kazuto – well, I haven't killed _Kirito_ … He'll probably show up, later, if I ever update this. I love SAO (the novel and fictions) so much.**


	2. spider's drown

**Have Fun Watching Him Breathe**

 **lizyeh2000** **helped me spark an idea to keep Kazuto alive. So I decided this story will have a deeper understanding of the civilian perspective, but the person we're using won't be overshadowing Naruto.**

 **Also, major question below that needs your opinion to keep the story going – read first, yeah?**

 **Disclaimer : _Naruto_ is owned by Masashi Kishimoto, Shueisha Inc, Viz Media, Madman Entertainment, Manga Entertainment, Aniplex, Animax, Studio Pierrot and TV Tokyo.**

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 _"_ _What were your parents like?"_

 _Dead._

 _"_ _Calm."_

(cited from **Symbiosis - Constructive Writer** )

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 **Chapter 2**

Always alone, unkempt and filthy – he had never been that way after meeting Jiji.

"Hi, Chi-chan!" Naruto smiled wide to Jiji's secretary. She wasn't very nice, but she wasn't mean either, and she lets him enter the Hokage office with no fuss.

"Jiji! Jiji! Jiji!" The five year old loved visiting the Hokage's office. It wasn't freezing or choking with dust. It wasn't bare or stale at all. There were colorful books, colorful chairs, colorful walls, colorful picture, colorful everything from the giant window that displays all of Konoha. And Naruto can always find his surrogate grandpa slaving away on his seat, just waiting for a fun distraction.

But he wasn't here to bring fun!

"Naruto-kun." The Sandaime kicked off his chair back from the desk and let Naruto hug him. "It's good to see you," He noted that Naruto looked upset. His burnt orange shirt had wet spots. "Are you well?"

"Mmhmm! I'm okay! But Kazuto-oniisan is not!"

"Oh?" Is he a new friend? "What do you mean?"

On top of looking upset, he looked more impatient. "He's dying in my apartment, dattebayo!"

"What?" Sarutobi signaled his ANBU to stay alert, and indicated Boar and Panther to present themselves. "Is he dangerous to you?"

"No No No! He's a villager! He's sick, and he died. At least I thought he died but he wasn't! We have to help him!"

Used to emergencies, the Sandaime was calm. "Alright Naruto-kun, hold on to me. We'll go to your apartment this instant." Naruto gripped tight, and Sarutobi pooled up the amount of chakra required to cross the distance towards Naruto's apartment. Temporarily vitalizing his body along with Naruto's small one, he moved them at extreme speeds.

He left with a small amount of regret of clairvoyance knowledge that there are vital budget papers waiting on his desk.

The four arrived at Naruto's front door, and the Hokage expertly canceled the simple traps Naruto had planted — courtesy of his budding prankster living style and the lack of security in the building which Naruto owned solely — a sneezing powder balloon and a keychain siren. The flypaper trap almost caught his face though.

He threw a quick glance to show his annoyance to Naruto. "Why didn't you set off your traps?"

"Eheh, I forgot to not reset it? Nevermind that, Jiji! Kazuto-oniisan!" Naruto walked pass the hallway and Sarutobi along with the two ANBU followed into his room and found the boy standing beside a teenage, black haired boy. The older child was still in the way only corpses can achieve, and his skin color suggested he had died only minutes ago. Boar immediately went to the child's side, his boot making crackles with the glass shards on the floor. He guessed it was a simple glass of water that had fallen off the boy's grip.

The Hokage heaved a heavy sigh. "Naruto-kun, I'm very sorry, but your friend is gone."

"No, he's not! I can still hear Kazuto-oniisan's heart beating! And he's still breathing!"

Sarutobi looked at Naruto oddly. He was standing a meter away from the dead (?) child, nowhere near enough to hear someone else's _heartbeat,_ or breathing pattern. "Boar?"

The ANBU checked the child's pulse. "It's weak, Hokage-sama."

"Have him brought to the hospital immediately. I will check on him later." Boar nodded and carefully lifted the young man up, his blood smudging the ANBU's uniform dirty, and the two disappeared with a Shunshin. Sarutobi signaled Panther to stay on alert, and turned to his young charge. "Now, Naruto-kun, can you tell me what happened? Who is he?"

"Kazuto-oniisan is… he gave me a meal earlier today. I was really hungry, and he gave me a delicious plate from the restaurant he was working in!" Naruto smiled widely recalling the delicious dish. "Then I found him when he was visiting the graveyard and we talked and he said he wanted to play… we didn't really play. He just talked." Naruto frowned. "Jiji, am I really a demon?"

Panther tensed.

"No!" Sarutobi was startled. He hadn't expected this to come up so early in Naruto's life.

His quick denial just made Naruto more upset. "He wasn't lying at all, Jiji. He told me his life stuff. He has lung cancer, and he said it was because he breathed in some kind of nasty chakra from me five years ago. And that I killed his sister. And that I drove his mom crazy and now she's dead in his house." Sarutobi really didn't like the heavy frown on Naruto's face. "He doesn't sound like he was lying. He was telling the truth."

The old man knelt down on his knees and wrapped his arms around the child. "Naruto." He said carefully and full of forlorn. "I will not lie to you. Yes, you do possess this nasty chakra. It's a demonic chakra. One that went out of control. But it's not truly yours. It's something else's that is inside of you. You are as much as a human as I am."

"Inside of me?" Naruto's question was muffled by his robes.

"Yes. Do you know about sealing, Naruto-kun?"

"Uh-huh, yeah."

"When you were born, this demon attacked Konoha, and you were the only one who could contain it, Naruto-kun. The demon was sealed inside of you, and because of this you saved us from the demon's rampage every single day. What happened to your friend, Kazuto-kun, is very unfortunate, and the monster's fault, not yours."

Naruto's lips thinned. It was clear that he wasn't satisfied with the answer somehow. "Where's the seal then? How come I never see it?"

"It's on your stomach, Naruto-kun. And it's not visible unless you're channeling an amount of chakra." The Hokage had hoped that Naruto would at least join the academy before he will have to tell Naruto about his tenant, but it was for naught now. "I'll teach you how to channel your chakra later, okay Naruto-kun?"

"Okay, Jiji." Naruto agreed, silently wondering if 'later' is going to take a long time. "Why would Kazuto-oniisan think the demon is me then? And how come I never knew about this, Jiji?"

"Now that is my fault Naruto-kun. I had passed a law forbidding anyone from ever mentioning the demon's current situation. I wanted you to have a chance to grow up as a normal child, and this law makes yours and the newer generations have no clue about your circumstances. Someone who is hosting a demon is generally, almost universally, not welcomed fondly. And I don't want you to carelessly tell someone else, because other villages would no doubt try to capture you and use you for their own purposes, or outright eliminate you."

Poor Naruto, he could see the boy trying his best to swallow the onslaught of new information. Then the boy wriggled out of his hold and patted his arms and chest. "I never heard of a demon attacking Konoha… I guess that's because of your law… What kind of demon? Kazuto-oniisan only said it was a demon but I don't know what it's like. I gotta know. It's in me afterall!"

"I will tell you, but first promise me you will not mess or tamper this seal. It would be catastrophic Naruto. Alright?"

Naruto promised, even though he wanted to ask what 'catastrophic' means.

"This demon is Tailed Beast. It resembles an animal, a fox to be specific. We call it the Kyuubi no Kitsune."

 _What's your favorite animal?_

 _Foxes! Giant, magnificent, gorgeous orange fox!_

"…Kyuubi."

Somewhere in the back of his mind, something breathed for the first time in half a decade.

"Am I going to be able to be a ninja, Jiji?" He still wanted to be like Jiji some day. When he's old, he better got fit muscles and be tall, and not big horizontally like other adults.

His head feels like they're splitting into two…?

"I have a feeling having two chakra isn't gonna be good for me, Jiji."

"Of course you can, Naruto-kun. Having two chakra sources means that you'll have a larger chakra reserves, but it will dampen your chakra control very heavily. But I know you, boy," Sarutobi ruffled his spiky blond hair.

There's a long, thin scream — the squeal of something sharp onto steel, not unlike a train's brake. But it doesn't annoy his ears like that time when he went to see Princess Yuki's movie, where the train's brake rung in his ears for more than ten seconds. This one hurts his head from the _inside_.

"You'll definitely work hard and overcome that challenge."

 **RELEASE ME.**

"Jiji?" Naruto yawned. "I feel… tired."

He was also really scared of that… _voice_ , thing, echoing.

"Ah, I can see that. It's been a hard day for you, I suppose. Why don't you go to sleep?"

 **MORTAL.**

The voice vibrated and Naruto could tell that it was _in_ and not _out_ and Jiji and Panther couldn't hear it like he's hearing it.

"I'll check on your friend. Come on, Naruto-kun."

Naruto closed his eyes tight and clasp his ears in his hands in a futile attempt to stop the claws scratching steel pipes. He felt himself being laid onto his futon and tucked in and his hair was tousled further by wrinkled, calloused hand- _not-claws._

"Sleep well, Naruto-kun."

The wide, crystal blue eyes dulled and disappeared from view. The Hokage stayed for a good ten seconds to make sure Naruto was truly asleep. When that was done, he went back to the kitchen/living room where Panther had stayed silent through the whole ordeal. "Keep an eye on him, Panther."

Sarutobi body flickered away. The Kazuto child told Naruto about the demon. Naruto liked the Kazuto child.

He was a Kage. He didn't get here by being loose with his laws. By all means, Kazuto will be facing an execution.

 _._

 ** _S_** _p **i** d **e** r **'** s **d** r **o** w **n**_

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 **MUAHAHAHAHA! CLIFFHANGER!**

 **Will the Hokage stand by the law?**

 **Will Kazuto be executed?**

 **What is happening to Naruto?**

 **Tell me what you wish will happen in your reviews or PMs (and keep in mind I am a cruel author, if that isn't obvious by the pain I'm giving Naruto here)**

In any case... I hope no one will flame about Naruto being too smart when he's very young. I have a decent vocabulary by the time I'm four, so I don't think this is giving a 'genius' label vibe.

I also don't see how Sarutobi will ever manage to keep the secret from Naruto once Naruto knows how to channel his chakra. When Naruto does, the seal became visible right? (or am I wrong?) In canon, it's okay, it's for convenience. But Naruto being a hard worker, _I_ think that there must have been some instances where Naruto's training his abysmal chakra control in his bathroom (like how I bring my phone in my bath to play a record of my professor's lecture whenever I'm pissed off of getting a B-) or Naruto daydreaming about a super cool jutsu and trying to do it right away by force.

As for Naruto not knowing about Kyuubi - your home's history isn't really _common sense_ when you're an average (let's say it that) five year old. My class didn't know about mayors and governers and presidents until we were taught about it, and considering the law, it's feasible that everyone is skittish in talking about Kyuubi no Kitsune around Naruto.

 **Be my heroes! revi** ew **rev** ie **wr** ev **iew**


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